Tallaght three-piece Bipolar Empire have emerged as a serious band to watch over the last year. In the two years since forming, Shane (vocals/guitar), Joe (bass/backing vocals) and Callum (drums) have clocked up a few hundred gigs, including slots supporting The Blizzards andThe Dykeenies.
They’ve ended up in London via Los Angeles where they recorded with legendary producer Pat McCarthy (REM, Madonna), so we’ve got frontman Shane to write a weekly letter home to keep us up to date with what they’re up to as they aim to get signed and make their musical presence known to the world at large.
By Shane O Reilly
Well the trip back home from London – the hub of the world – has been more than good for things. In some ways, Ireland seems to be forgetting all the nonsense of recession times, yet it’s holding on to a lot of the nonsense at the same time. But overall, this is where our home is and people are what you need.
We have a full album recorded, well almost recorded and to be honest Ireland is the only place where we have the resources to make an attempt at getting it out to the public. Right now that’s our plan.
It’s be done, it’s been listened to by various folk, criticised, deemed not good enough for the modern market yet at the same time who wants to be a part of it? Where’s the soul? Where’s the love? Where’s the advice?
The corporate machine is producing disastrous music, fad, forgettable, cliché, boring, uninspiring rip off music. INXS is the latest victim of the sampler. All we have these days is the music of the past. The record companies and whoever’s in charge of music have no connection with the youth whatsoever. I don’t know the last time I bought an album in the charts. I think it was the first Arctic Monkeys album. I believed the hype, and rightly so.
The same sorts couldn’t predict The Last Waltz tribute selling out in the Olympia Dublin on Saturday May 15th. A 1200 seater venue sold out by amateurs. No help whatsoever from the business side of music. A bunch of lads from Crumlin selling out The Olympia to me is unbelievable. I don’t think the promoters that refused to help with the promotion even knew what The Last Waltz was. Neil Diamond, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell to mention but a few of the artists being impersonated, to think all of these artists would sell the venue out tenfold.
You see, no one wants to help up and coming artists really do they? It’s all about money. Over here it seems. Where can Irish artists go with their music? They might get ‘Demo of the Month on Phantom’ but it won’t get played for real, like they use to play things when they were pirate.
In 1998 Ray Burke issued a ban on Irish pirate radio stations, so I’ve learned, so what do we get now? Click music. Why is it the pirate ones are always the best? They’re not afraid to play Radiohead or The Velvet Underground. And they have got a responsibility to try and influence the youth in a good way, in a non corrupt way.
Who’s going around the bars in Ireland looking for talent? (And believe me there’s plenty of it) no one. Well very few if there is anyone. Maybe it’s a coincidence but there’s no outlet in my opinion. If we’re lucky we might get a play at four in the morning after all the signed bands have played. The insomniacs will be our biggest fans – hopefully there’s loads of them.
To go back to this gig, it was a piercing atmosphere. Such a community vibe, everyone in the show are friends and the guys who play ‘The Band’ (The Group) are three brothers Dara, Kevin and Damian and a friend Neil O Farrel. Something like this makes me think that things can change for the better if you want it bad enough, and I don’t know what the majority vote is, but I’m in serious need for a change of some sort.
Tallaght tunesmiths
A scene needs to exist in Ireland. Why do bands have to go away to become ‘successful’. Could we not try and encourage the music culture in our own coutry more. We did with ‘The Ballads’ and things like that, but the youth have a lot to offer. Dublin, and Tallaght particularly, is oozing with talent in so many different genres: blues, indie, country – however you want to categorise it, but it’s there.
There are minor pushes been made in places to encourage bands and artists of all sorts but I think there needs to be more from the magazines, radio stations and recording studios. If you think that Elvis Presley just walked into Sun studios recorded ‘That’s Alright Mama’ then it got played on local radio, then national radio. It’s quite simple but is that even a possibility in Ireland? To most people I know in bands they’d see it as an impossibility in this country and why does it have to be this way?
I’m sick of it, the public’s sick of it. The responsibility is there, the people need to be put in place to make it possible. U2, Boomtown Rats, Thin Lizzy all had to leave to ‘make it’. Why do we reject the talents we should be embracing? Father Ted wasn’t good enough for RTÉ when it first came out, but they play it now. It can change and I think it will.
